Modern consumers have become accustomed to the safety and convenience of making purchase transactions at remote points of sale using credit cards instead of cash. Credit cards typically allow a consumer to make purchases on credit accounts in which a credit card issuing institution records purchases to a consumer's account and then sends a monthly billing statement to the consumer. If the consumer elects not to pay off the entire balance of the account at the end of the billing cycle, the credit card issuing institution typically collects interest on the outstanding balance on the account.
In response to the success of credit cards, banking institutions such as banks and credit unions have developed debit cards that can be used in a manner similar to the use of credit cards in making purchases. However, unlike credit cards, debit card purchases are typically posted to the consumer's financial account (e.g., checking account) within a few days of the debit transaction, with funds for the purchases being provided essentially at the time of posting. Therefore, monthly statements indicating a corresponding monthly balance including purchases for which payment is required are typically not issued (or are part of a monthly statement for the financial account) because the funds for the purchases are automatically taken directly from the consumer's checking account as each purchase posts. Correspondingly, there is no need for the consumer to pay a balance or minimum payment amount indicated on monthly statements.
With certain credit and debit card-type accounts, processing, managing and otherwise using the accounts under a variety of different conditions can be challenging. For instance, there may be more than one cardholder drawing on an account such as in the instance of a debit card associated with a joint checking account. If two users for a particular debit card account unknowingly make debit transactions during the same time period, overdrafts can occur. That is, in order to accurately maintain and manage charges against a particular account via a debit card, each user must generally immediately communicate any charges to other users. Similar problems can be encountered with credit cards, for example, when a credit limit is neared.
For many credit and debit card types of transactions, government-related compliance issues also apply. The manner in which accounts can function, relative to financial resources, credit limits, purchasing and other aspects often fall under certain compliance rules. These compliance rules generally require adherence and thus introduce another consideration to the management and processing of credit and debit card transaction processing and associated functions.
The above and other issues have presented challenges to the processing, management and use of debit cards and related transactions.